Mu Erpang was the one who was pretending to take a nap. He was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, reciting a rhyme book.
Suddenly he heard a loud noise, and frightened, he subconsciously looked outside.
The only person who could see it was, of course, the strange scholar in the room opposite, who was also startled.
The two of them unconsciously made eye contact.
The scholar opposite him looked young, probably in his early twenties.
At this time, the outside became quiet again - after all, those who could make it this far were all experienced in examinations, and as long as it was not an accident involving life and death like a fire in the examination room, it would not be enough to make them panic.
After he regained his composure, there was a hint of curiosity on his face.
The sergeant came over and walked through the formalities, warning everyone not to make any noise and to maintain order.
The scholar wanted to find out from the soldier what had happened, so he used his eyes to encourage Mu Erpang, who looked younger and more inexperienced.
Mu Erpang didn't bother to rush after him. He rolled up his sleeves, shrank his body, and just fixed his eyes on the charcoal brazier that was distributed uniformly in the corner of the door.
After being in a daze for a while, Mu Erpang felt inexplicably cold. He looked carefully and saw that the white smoke from the charcoal fire was floating in the wind, and the little warmth that was already there had long been dissipated by the wind. He knew it was not his illusion.
The wind was indeed much stronger than before.
The loud noise just now was probably caused by a building somewhere nearby collapsing or being damaged, so that the examination rooms in the vicinity had less shelter, and the wind became even stronger.
When something like this happens, everyone's mood will be affected, after all, they still have to stay here for several days.
Mu Erpang looked up at the scholar opposite him who had just tried to urge him to look outside. The other party must have guessed this, so he suddenly became ashamed, frustrated and resentful. I no longer had the slightest desire to inquire.
He no longer cared about the other person, quickly opened the package, and put on the other set of clothes prepared by Chen Cui.
…………
Mu Erpang, who was in the game, didn't even know what exactly happened, and Shen Cui, the parent sitting in front of the "monitor" outside the venue who was accompanying the examinee, was even more confused.
She saw the teenagers on the screen unfolding their bags one after another, putting on all their belongings, including face towels, and wrapping themselves up like "people in a cocoon". She then guessed that it was the law that played tricks on her, causing these children to suffer from the cold.
Therefore, it was not a coincidence that they were assigned to cells in the same area before. It was indeed a deliberate arrangement of the rules.
Each of them wore one inner garment, three outer garments, plus the extra set of spare clothes she had prepared, for a total of five sets of clothes. But even so, their sitting posture changed to hugging their arms, obviously they still felt cold.
Fortunately, they each had a thin blanket on their bodies after a while.
The thin blankets were of uniform style and looked very old. One could tell at a glance that they were from the hair in the examination room.
As a rule, this thing is usually distributed to the candidates before nightfall.
This is a special case. I think the officials in the Imperial Examination Hall also knew about the situation, so they adjusted the process.
Later, Chen Cui recorded the number of times they drank the ginger soup in the thermos, and she realized that those few pieces of clothing plus the thin quilt were still not enough, and the boys were all very cold.
That thermos is the largest one in the system mall, and it can hold five bowls of ginger soup.
Come to think of it, when Shen Cui prepared this for them, they all said they didn’t like the taste of ginger very much and said just bring hot water.
After all, it was early spring, and they thought that it would be a little cold at most when sleeping at night, but they already had quilts at that time, so there was no need to drink ginger soup.
Chen Cui refused, saying that it tasted a bit bad, but it could warm the body better than hot water. If they really disliked the taste, they could wait until there was clean water in the examination room and mix it themselves to drink.
Naturally, they would not offend Chen Cui, so they all brought them.
Normally, such a heavy pot should be enough for them to drink for three days. However, the way the situation was developing, Wei Xi's thermos, who drank the most, would be empty in a day and a half at most.
Seeing this situation, Chen Cui couldn't help but say to the system worriedly: [If I had known earlier, no matter what they said, no matter whether the luggage would be too heavy, I would have to fill three pots for each of them to bring in. 】
She rarely gets so impatient, but right now she feels doubly powerless because she is out of the situation and can't help them at all.
The system advised: [Host, don’t worry. The ginger soup is finished. There is also the tonic you prepared. 】
When there were not enough shopping outlets for the provincial examination, she would always buy medicine for Wei Xi first.
This time, she had a lot more money to buy, so Shen Cui naturally did not hesitate to spend money. She bought two doses of medicine for Wei Xi and one dose for the other teenagers who were not so sick.
There was no point in getting anxious now, so Shen Cui suppressed her anxious mood.
After the first day, the boys' physical condition was relatively stable, only Wei Xi's physical condition dropped by 1 point. After he felt unwell, he immediately took a pill and his physical condition recovered.
Before dawn the next day, the test papers were distributed in the examination room, and the Q-version figures of the teenagers started counting the papers in unison like money counters.
But if you look closely, you will find that their movements are much stiffer and slower than usual.
Chen Cui was still a little worried, but worrying would not help at this moment, so she enlarged the picture and looked at their test papers. I thought that when I was concentrating on the problem, I wouldn't be distracted by other things just like them.
The first round of the metropolitan examination, like the provincial examination, tested classics and poetry.
But the number of questions is much smaller, with five questions on scriptures and two questions on poetry and prose.
The first title of the classic is "to be neutral and not rely on the strong."
Because Shen Cui wanted to immerse herself in the book, after reading the questions, she did not go directly to the answers written by the teenagers, but flipped through the book herself.
So it took her some effort to find the original text in "The Doctrine of the Mean". The full sentence is "A gentleman is harmonious but not swayed; he is strong and correct; he is neutral but does not lean to one side. He is strong and correct; when the country is ruled by the right way, he remains unchanged; when the country is ruled by the wrong way, he remains unchanged until death; he is strong and correct."
There were no annotations written by Lao Buyu in the book, but she had been exposed to it over the years and could figure out its meaning after pondering it for herself.
This sentence means that a gentleman should be docile but not follow the crowd. He should go with the flow without being corrupted. He should also remain neutral and unbiased. He should not change his ambitions when the country is peaceful and the politics is clear, and he should adhere to his moral principles even when the country is in chaos and the politics is dark, and would rather die than change.
As for the repeatedly appearing "强哉骄", it means "this is the real power".
This question is not difficult, but it reveals a message. In this exam, the examiner's earlier intention to test the candidates' ability to "benefit oneself" has changed to testing their willingness to "benefit the world".
Shen Cui figured out the meaning of the question, and the teenagers on the light screen naturally finished writing the question. Shen Cui looked at them one by one and made some comparisons to confirm that the meanings everyone had solved were similar, and no one failed on the first question.
The worries were reduced - obviously, the cold environment did not affect everyone's thinking.
However, everyone's speed in writing the papers was indeed much slower. For example, during the provincial examination, when she slowly solved a question, they had almost finished writing all the questions on the classics.
Mei Ruochu, who had made the fastest progress, had only finished the third question on the meaning of the sutra.
He would write intermittently, and would stop and warm his hands after each moment, for fear that his stiff hands would affect his handwriting.
By the time he finished writing the five sutras, it was already night.
Zhou prepared dinner and knocked on the door. Shen Cui watched her students drinking ginger soup and eating fried rice on the screen while she ate a bite of dinner.
Lao Buyu and Zhou were actually worried about them, so no one had much interest in chatting at the dinner table.
When he was almost done eating, Lao Buyu suddenly looked outside and said leisurely, "In the morning I am afraid of the clouds drifting southwards, and in the evening I am afraid of the clouds rolling northwards."
At this moment, he certainly had no intention of reciting poetry, and this proverb was referring to the celestial phenomena.
Shen Cui understood and asked, "Is the weather going to change?"
Lao Buyu nodded worriedly, "I'm afraid there will be strong winds and heavy rain tonight."
He reads a lot of miscellaneous books and has some knowledge of astronomy and meteorology, so his judgment is unlikely to be wrong.
Just as he said, that night, a violent storm swept across the entire capital city.
Chen Cui had been sleeping restlessly to begin with, and when she was disturbed by the crackling noise outside, she immediately put on her clothes and sat up.
When the light curtain opened, the young men from Cuiwei in the Imperial Examination Hall were awakened before her.
Chen Cui looked carefully and saw that there were no water stains on their bodies. She felt relieved knowing that at least there was no leak in the room.
But the wind in this room... is too strong!
Mu Erpang, Mei Ruochu and others on the light screen were seen, with their hair flying, squatting or lying down with great effort to pick up things.
And if they weren't careful, the things they had scattered on the ground would disappear from the grid - apparently they were blown outside.
They were busy for nearly half an hour, and only after they had tied up all the things into packages and rolled them into the quilts did they rest again. The things that had disappeared in the room did not appear in the room again, so they must have been blown away by the wind.
The storm lasted for two full days, and only stopped suddenly after they finished their first exam.
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